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Legislative Council - Fifty-Fifth Parliament, First Session (55-1)
2022-07-07 Daily Xml
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Government Accountability

The Hon. S.G. WADE (15:02): I seek leave to make a brief explanation before asking questions without notice to the Leader of the Government in relation to government accountability.

Leave granted.

The Hon. S.G. WADE: The government is accountable to parliament and to each house of the parliament, yet the Leader of the Government in the Legislative Council persistently refers questions to ministers in the other place, even when the questions are broad questions about stated government priorities and their delivery. For example, in question time this week, the Hon. Robert Simms MLC asked a series of questions about rental affordability and housing—questions that related to broad government policy, not portfolio detail—yet the leader referred all these questions to ministers in the other place.

Given that the government claimed in the election that we were in a housing crisis, why does the government now refuse to account to the people of South Australia through this chamber for its actions on housing and rental affordability? My second question is—

Members interjecting:

The PRESIDENT: Order!

The Hon. S.G. WADE: —given that this chamber only—

Members interjecting:

The PRESIDENT: Order! The Hon. Mr Wade, just wait until we get some silence, please.

Members interjecting:

The PRESIDENT: Order! The Hon. Mr Wade, please continue.

The Hon. S.G. WADE: Given that this chamber only has two ministers out of 15 ministers, is it the Malinauskas government's lack of respect for its obligations to this chamber that it only accounts for one-seventh of the full range of government responsibilities?

The Hon. K.J. MAHER (Attorney-General, Minister for Aboriginal Affairs, Minister for Industrial Relations and Public Sector) (15:04): I thank the honourable member for his questions. Where questions are sensibly answered in other portfolios, I will continue to refer them to other members for the very precise reason of being as accountable as we properly can be to get full and proper answers for the honourable member.

If I gave glib, short answers to questions, the Hon. Stephen Wade would be the first person complaining about not answering properly and not being accountable. Just to satisfy the Hon. Stephen Wade, I will refer questions that are better answered in other portfolio areas to those other portfolio areas. In relation to his second question, I couldn't properly hear what was being asked.

Members interjecting:

The PRESIDENT: Order!

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